This invention relates to a sheet turning method and device for displaying a plurality of sheet material in a sequential manner, and more particularly relates to a method and device for displaying music sheets one page at a time in a sequential manner.
It is a common problem for a musician in having to turn or flip the music sheets while playing a musical instrument since the hands of the musician are preoccupied with playing the musical instrument. Many attempts have been made to provide automatic page turning devices which operate to turn the music sheets for the musician without using the hand. However, they are far too complex in construction and do not operate satisfactorily or reliably. Most of such page turning devices such that shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,072, 080 to D. Conlin or U.S. Pat. No. 4,936,034 to C. J. Chan et al, operate to turn the sheets by mechanical means operating in a horizontal direction either from left to right, or from right to left, such as using a plurality of mechanical swing arms or an annular guide mounted on a rotary shaft for simulating the action of turning the pages by hand. The device must be capable not only in turning the pages sequentially page by page but also to maintain the turned page and the unturned pages fixedly in place so as to display the turned page clearly for reading. Such devices are often subject to jamming and are difficult and time consuming to set up or operate; and they are not suitable for use on a piano or organ.
A device operated by gravitational force for displaying music sheets is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 6,107,558 to W. W. Cowan. In this device, an opening is formed at the top margin of the music sheets through which they are mounted to a threaded spindle shaft. The shaft is turned in steps to cause the sheets to fall one at a time from the spindle and to drop vertically downwards into a lower receiver tray so as to display the music sheets sequentially. The device, however, does not operate reliably since the opening formed in the sheets is subject to tear to cause jamming; and the sheets may not fall or separate positively from the spindle shaft. Sometimes several sheets rather than a single sheet may drop from the spindle. Also, extreme care must be exercised in mounting each sheet to each thread of the spindle shaft sequentially in order to prevent mulfunctioning. Moreover, both the sheets mounted on the spindle and the displayed sheet are not held fixedly so that they may be scattered easily by even very light wind and the displayed sheet may be fluttered by wind to render reading the music difficult. It is also very difficult and time consuming to keep loose sheets in proper order as they may get mixed up very easily. Another drawback of the Cowan device is that the music sheets need to be reshuffled after each performance in order to return the sheets back to their original order so that they will be ready for the next performance.
It is a principal object of the present invention to provide a music sheets turning device operated by gravitational force for turning or flipping the sheets in a vertical direction in a sequential manner positively and reliably
It is another object of the present invention to provide a music sheets turning device which is capable of handling any original documents, either sheets, music book, or other sources of any size, by photocopying the original upon one side of a sheet only.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a music sheets turning device which is not subject to jamming.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a music sheets turning device which is versatile and is suitable for use by musicians playing the various types of musical instruments.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a modular music sheets mounting means for maintaining, organizing and storing music sheets, which can be loaded to and unloaded from the sheets turning portion of the device easily and quickly at any time.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a music sheets turning device which is simple in construction yet is reliable and is easy to set up and operate.
The method of the present invention briefly comprises creating a stack of a plurality of transparent envelopes in which each envelope has an opened end, two closed side edges, and a closed bottom end. The closed end of the envelopes are attached to an elongated rod whereby the envelopes are turnable relative to the elongated rod. The elongated rod has two end portions extending beyond the two closed edges of the envelopes of the stack. The music sheets are enclosed in the envelopes with one sheet located in one envelope in a sequential manner. A first opened slot is formed in a first location of a selected one edge portion of the opened end or the two closed side edges of the odd number of envelopes, and a second opened slot is formed in a second location of a corresponding selected one edge portion of the opened end or the two closed side edges of the even number of envelopes. The stack is mounted on a top forward leaning upper frame with the elongated rod rotatably mounted in a substantially horizontal manner to a lower end of the upper frame. A slider arm is slidably mounted to the upper frame. The slider arm has a cantilever finger extending over the edge portion of the stack of envelopes at which the first and second opened slots are positioned. The cantilever arm retains the stack mounted on the upper frame when the finger is not aligned with either the first location or the second location. The slider arm is movable slidably to position the cantilever finger between the first location and the second location alternately and sequentially such that when the finger is positioned at the first location, the first envelope having the opened slot formed therein at the first location and containing the first sheet of the music sheets will turn or flip downwards past the cantilever finger to fall, by gravitational force, onto a lower display frame to display the first page of the music sheets, and subsequently when the finger is positioned at the second location, the second envelope having the opened slot formed therein at the second location and containing the second sheet of the music sheets will turn or flip downwards past the cantilever finger to fall, by gravitational force, over the first envelope now lying on the display frame. In this manner, the music sheets are displayed page by page in a sequential manner.